120 Reasons To Live: Christmas

Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.

#101: Christmas “Stupid Kids”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_xq8HsHDdA

If 120 Reasons To Live had any editorial foresight, planning or sense of timing, this post would’ve been published on or around December 25. That way, fewer readers would scratch their heads as to why, exactly, their attentions are being recalled to 1989 and a kooky Boston college-rock band that remains largely forgotten. But we’re here to point fingers in the sky and claim Christmas was important. For one, Yo La Tengo’s James McNew joined Christmas a few years after this video for “Stupid Kids.” For two, members of Christmas went on to form Combustible Edison, which probably requires further explanation but we’ll just say that Combustible Edison was partially responsible for the mid-’90s revival of lounge and cocktail culture. So show a little respect for “Stupid Kids,” whose video is too busy for shirts and too confusing to criticize. Its embedding is disabled by request, so you will need to watch it on YouTube.